Goals of Load Testing Companies
First of all, let us familiarize with definition of load testing. Load testing is a kind of verification during which a simulated demand is put on a computing device or a system in order to measure its response.
The main goals of load testing:
- Evaluate the performance and functionality of a software application during development and deployment phases.
- Evaluate the performance and functionality of a software application during new software release production phase, patch-set releases.
- Optimize the performance of a software application including server setup and code optimization.
- Select hardware (software platform) and server configuration appropriate for a particular software program.
It should be noticed that one and the same goal of load testing companies may encompass execution of different types of performance & load tests; for instance, the first, second and third goals may be set for the similar reasons: to run performance testing and stability testing. But while planning load testing it is logical to stick to technical goals (and not business goals mentioned above), which are achieved through testing, and then to classify tests based on these goals:
- If you are going to examine a software app’s performance parameters, namely identifying response time of an application at different connection speeds over an extended period of time including applying certain stress on the program then this process can be referred to as a performance testing. By the way, performance testing companies will gladly help you to solve any problems relating your app’s performance issues.
- If you aim to understand whether your app is able to work correctly over long time period of use (except for memory leaks, improper configuration settings, etc. ) then there is a need to conduct a load test for a prolonged period of time and this process is called stability testing. At that, assessment of response time may take place here but at the same time this is not necessarily a high priority task, the main goal is to prevent the system from breaking down.
- Stress testing focuses on verifying the stability of a given system under unfavorable conditions, when its operational capacity reaches its limits; whether it is able to withstand the high demand or recover after it was subjected to peak workloads. This testing is done to check how and when the system will fail.
Be wise to consider a list of software testing companies as it contains leading testing specialists who can help you ensure successful launch of your software products.